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Goshen woman charged in extortion case, now linked to attempted child kidnapping in Vernal
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Goshen woman charged in extortion case, now linked to attempted child kidnapping in Vernal

VERNAL — A Goshen, Utah County woman already facing charges for harassing her town’s mayor now faces new criminal charges in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a child in Vernal.

An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Amanda Kaye Bachman, 52. She is charged in 8th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and other charges.

The warrant, which was sealed, was served Thursday when Bachman appeared for a scheduled court hearing in her Utah County case. She was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail, where she is being held without the ability to post bail.

In March, Bachman and Beth Marilyn Schardine, 32, of Spanish Fork, were charged with theft by extortion, bribery and other charges. That investigation began when Utah County sheriff’s deputies served a court-ordered “Writ of Assistance to Remove a Child” on Bachman’s Goshen home on Jan. 10. The deputies had two warrants to remove a 3-year-old girl from the home and return her to the girl’s father, who had legal custody. The child was “removed from Bachman by a lawful court order” and returned to her father, according to charging documents.

In May, Schardine, Ty Lucero Whetten, 36, and Kaitlyn Anne Bachman, 24, traveled to Vernal with the intention of removing the young girl from the child’s biological father and then transporting her “to the child’s biological mother in another city,” charging documents said.

Whetten and Kaitlyn Bachman entered the father’s home without permission, leading to the father — a Uintah County Jail officer — firing a shot into the home, according to police who arrived shortly afterward. No injuries were reported.

These three were all subsequently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies.

Since the trio’s arrest in Vernal, Amanda Bachman has been advocating for their release. This week, she participated in a small rally at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

Although the new charges against Bachman were under wraps until Friday, court documents accuse her of committing most of her crimes on May 15, the same day Schardine, Whetten and Kaitlyn Bachman attempted to take the child from their Vernal home, according to police.

In January, the girl’s father filed a request for a civil injunction against Bachman in Vernal alleging stalking, but it was denied, court records show.

Bachman’s first court appearance on her new charges is scheduled for Monday. The next hearing for the others in the Uintah County case is scheduled for Wednesday.

In addition to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies, the other new Vernal charges against Bachman include obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; theft by extortion and forgery, third-degree felonies; and impersonating a police officer, a class B misdemeanor. Amanda Bachman’s obstruction charge was scheduled to have occurred on July 3.

Bachman and Schardine are already accused of harassing the mayor of the city of Goshen, in part by falsely claiming on social media that he is involved in child trafficking. They are also accused of demanding a large sum of money to stop the harassment.

Shortly after officers removed the child from Bachman’s home in January, police say, Bachman posted on her Facebook page and other social media apps that the 3-year-old had been abducted by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and sold into human trafficking. The social media attacks later targeted two local church leaders in Goshen. One of those men, Steven Staheli, is also the mayor of Goshen.

On February 12, Staheli filed a complaint with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office against Bachman and Schardine. The complaint states that he was the victim of “ongoing harassment” by the women and that he and the second man were the victims of “lies and distortions” and that the women “demanded a million dollars.”

In that case, Bachman and Schardine are charged with two counts of theft by extortion and bribery to influence a public official or political acts, second-degree felonies; plus harassment by electronic communication, a class A misdemeanor; and defamation, a class B misdemeanor.

After an attempted robbery of his father’s child in Vernal in May, Whetten was also charged with two counts of assault on a police officer, a second-degree felony, and impersonating a public servant, a class B misdemeanor.